A Rainy Morning

We woke up this morning to rain.   Now, I kind of like a good rainy day in the summer to stay at home and do nothing but I was a little concerned how things would play out with the kids.  They don't do well when we're all cooped up inside for too long.  And running any errands or going to the gym to get out of the house were kind of out of the question for today.  Going anywhere that requires Grace to wear shoes right now is a bit out of the question.  You see, yesterday afternoon while they were playing in the kiddie pool in the backyard {best 16 bucks I've ever spent in my life, by the way} she tripped and stubbed her toe REALLY badly and we were worried for a bit there that her entire toenail had gotten ripped off.  {I've said it before, but I'll say it again -- I am really not good in any kind of emergency situation.  Anytime there's blood or injury involved I just don't know what to do.  There's no way I could have ever been a doctor or a nurse!}  I put some ointment on her toe and wrapped it in a TON of gauze and let her lounge around for the rest of the day.

When I was getting the kids in bed last night I unwrapped it to take another look and we were both happy to see that the toenail IS still in place but it is most definitely banged up and hurting.  I wrapped the toe back up and taped around a few of them to keep the gauze from slipping off and she's pretty much incapacitated for the next little while for doing things like the kiddie pool or chores or wearing any of her shoes.

I digress.  This morning got off to a rocky start -- a certain number one son didn't seem to think it fair that he has to do chores today and Grace is off the hook, but I managed to redirect his attention by suggesting he could get started on making a new bookmark with the yarn we got at Wal-mart yesterday.  Color me surprised!  He set up camp in the family room and began winding yarn into a ball and before I knew it, it was a family affair. 

 See that bandaged toe in the background?

There were several entertaining factors playing out in the ensuing scene.  First off, Grace was humming to herself as she sat there oblivious to the surrounding world and wound yarn ball after yarn ball.

 

{Does anyone else remember this stuff from childhood??  This plastic sheeting with a grid on it sort of like cross-stitching fabric?  I remember making bookmarks from it when I was a kid and when I saw it at Wal-mart last week I grabbed some thinking that it would be perfect to use this summer with the kids.  It was very prescient of me.  Hahahaha.  I ended up pulling it out on Sunday to teach the kids how to do it in an effort to keep them from driving me and themselves CRAZY.  They all really got into it, and I promised them we'd pick out some more colors of yarn next time we went to the store.  Luckily we managed a Wal-mart trip yesterday morning before Toe Gate 2012 happened.}

 She wants to make a bookmark for her friend's birthday, so I configured out the letters on a piece of graph paper for her to copy on her plastic grid.

Second off, lover boy really wanted in on the action and kept trying to grab the yarn.  This got Ethan so frustrated that he started freaking out and yelling at the baby for tangling everything up.  And then when Jane joined in the action he started screaming things like "You're DEAD!!!" and eventually quit his yarn efforts altogether and went over to the computer to YouTube videos on how to make an origami heart.

Trying to pull himself up to standing to get at that yarn!

 Moments before Ethan grabbed all the yarn from him and started yelling.

Third entertaining factor -- Jane and her creepy baby doll.  Hahahahaha.  I got this baby doll for her a couple of Christmases ago and have never really seen her play with it.  All of a sudden, though, she wants to bring it everywhere with her.  I don't know how long that will last, but it's pretty funny for now.  She was carrying it around all morning and when I got the camera out for the yarn festivities she wanted me to take pictures of her baby, too.   

And lastly, Grace must have REALLY enjoyed winding up the yarn because she volunteered on her own to teach Sophie how to do it and then sat and wound up two more balls for her (humming the whole time.)  Perhaps this isn't such a funny sight to anyone else, but it really tickled my fancy.

And that was that.  The kids have now moved on to watching TV and the baby is napping, but hopefully the rest of the day will be filled with moments of harmony and happiness like this morning.  A girl can always dream, right??  Hahahahaha.